


I see you

by Taitai83



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fluff, Fools in Love, I haven't seen the finale but I've heard enough, I've come around to the Ladrien side of the love square, Identity Reveal, Two-Shot, accidental reveal, comfort and friendship, loving a whole person, probably not entirely canon-compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-24 15:04:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taitai83/pseuds/Taitai83
Summary: When Adrien finds Ladybug crying in an alley, a heart to heart makes them both feel better. And the conversations that grow from that first one bring them closer together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please no spoilers for the season finale in the comments! I've had to completely avoid Tumblr and twitter because no matter what tags I blocked the spoilers are everywhere. Keep my fics clear at least!

It was the sniffling sound coming from the alley that drew his attention.

Adrien knew from his jaunts as Chat Noir that this particular alley had a secluded alcove at the end, furnished by the neighbors with a moderately comfortable chair set and a small table, and private enough for an emergency transformation.

But this afternoon he was sure he could hear someone hidden in it crying.

After a hasty debate with his giant of a bodyguard, who didn’t want to squeeze himself down the alley but also wasn’t going to allow his charge out of his sight, Adrien agreed to stay in the line of sight of the sidewalk if he was allowed to go check on whoever was upset down at the end.

He received quite the surprise, coming around the corner, his quiet inquiry dying on his lips as he found himself face to face with the spotted heroine of Paris.

She looked terrible.

You know, for someone as naturally beautiful as she was.

Her red-rimmed eyes widened in surprise at being found, and she hastily tried to compose herself, wiping away the tears on her cheeks and uncurling herself to sit up straight in the chair.

“A-Adrien!” she stuttered. “W-what are you doing here?”

“I heard crying. I wanted to see if whoever was down here was okay,” he answered quickly, then paused. “ARE you okay?”

“O-oh yeah! Yeah, I’m fine!” she said with false brightness. “You know! Just one of those days!”

_One of those months, was more like it_, Adrien thought, pretty certain he knew what was actually bothering her. It had been a tough few weeks for Paris’ superheroes. After 18 months of fighting they didn’t have any leads on finding Hawkmoth, and some pompous blowhard from an American news channel had decided that the best way for him to make a name for himself was to attack the city’s teenage defenders for not doing enough.

Most people told him where to shove it, but there were enough assholes that took up his message for it to sting. Editorials were still appearing regularly, alternatively calling Ladybug a stone-cold bitch or a dramatic over-planner. Too much of this and too little of that, or vice versa depending on the author’s point of view. Adrien wasn’t even sure what they were saying about Chat Noir anymore, he stopped reading after the first 4 days. But then, he was used to this sort of thing.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, certain he knew what her answer would be.

“Oh no! I’m fine!” she responded in her too-cheerful voice. “Just need to recharge a bit!”

Adrien leaned on his hands against the brick wall behind him.

“It’s okay, you know,” he said quietly. “To not be fine.”

She looked up at him sharply, one eyebrow arched and the other pinched, as if she were trying to determine whether to challenge him or accept his sympathy.

She relented with a sigh, her body flopping into the chair again, and Adrien let himself feel relieved.

“It’s just been a rough go of it lately,” she muttered.

“I know, and I’m sorry you have to put up with it.”

“Not your fault,” she snorted.

“I know, but I’m still sorry.”

She nodded, her eyes trained on her knees.

“If you DO want to talk about it, I’m a pretty good listener,” he ventured. 

She was quiet for a long time, and Adrien started to wonder if he should leave her alone.

“It’s just…” she started, half turning her head towards him, eyes still focused on the ground.

“Just…?” Adrien prompted. And then the dam burst.

“No one sees me as a person! It’s like it hasn’t occurred to anyone to realize that I’m a girl with school and a family and responsibilities that aren’t Ladybug’s! The way that American asshole talks, you’d think I could be transformed 24/7 and was getting paid like royalty! Like I should be _fired_ or something because we haven’t caught Hawkmoth!”

Her arms waved in front of her as she vented her frustration. Adrien marveled that he had never realized how much she talked with her hands.

“I’d like to see HIM try it, the jackass! Being American, he’d probably try to sue the city for mental anguish after the first day. But I’M supposed to get the job done in the first 5 minutes, and look pretty doing it, and smile just right while they ask me questions about my identity and my “love life”, and if I show one moment of being human I get nasty op-eds in the next day’s paper!”

She slumped in her chair again, the anger animating her having dissipated through her hands.

Adrien cleared his throat. “I get it, you know. What you’re feeling.”

He paused and she looked up at him again.

“They say it’s part of being a celebrity, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I’ve had people I’ve never even met tell me they’re in love with me; people I’ve never spoken to have been akumatized because I did or didn’t go to something. It’s bizarre.”

She was studying him as if she’d never really seen him before, her head cocked slightly to the side and her eyes narrowed in thought.

“I guess I never thought about it like that,” she said. “But you’re in a pretty similar situation.”

“Well, I mean, I’m not saving Paris or anything,” he mumbled.

“No, but you have to maintain an image all the time or be crucified for it.”

“Yeah exactly. It sucks, to be honest with you, and it never turns off. You know, after I started going to school I made an Instagram account to see what having my own social media would be like and be able to follow my friends and make new ones. I made exactly 2 posts before my dad found out and it went from ‘Adrien Agreste’ to ‘Adrien Agreste _Brand_’. Now I’m only allowed to post thing that make me look 1. Smart, 2. Cultured, or 3. Professional.” He ticked the numbers off on his fingers.

Ladybug seemed aghast.

“What?? But that’s… didn’t you…?” She seemed flustered, and Adrien chuckled.

“I’ve managed to slip a few in that weren’t approved. Complimenting Natalie is allowed. My dad was PISSED when I posted the picture of myself when I was sick, because I looked terrible. But it’s not like he can _ban _me from getting sick in the future.”

“He… would… ban you from things… if you posted about it?”

“Yeah, if he didn’t think it fit with my _image_. It kinda sucks. I can still do stupid things with my friends, but I have to be careful about who sees me.”

“That’s… I’m sorry. I thought Chat and I had it bad, but at least we can transform and drop out of sight.” She ducked her head, apparently lost in thought again.

Adrien considered what she’d said. Truthfully, he was freer as Chat than as Adrien. Chat didn’t really care what anyone said.

“I can’t imagine it’s much better. If your friends are anything like mine, you’ve probably had to listen to them go on about the nasty letters and not be able to say anything.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of the worst part. My best friend and my parents have all had things to say, and not all of it positive. It’s been awful because I don’t have anyone I can actually talk to about it.”

“W-What about Chat Noir?”

She sighed again.

“I can’t talk to Chat about it either.”

“Why not? I mean, he must have the same frustrations.”

She glanced up at him, then back down at the ground, sighing ruefully.

“Chat has feelings for me,” she murmured. “I love him as a friend and partner, but I have to keep him at arm’s length for the personal things. If I opened up about this, he’d probably read it as me WARMING up to him. I don’t want to lead him on.”

It felt like a punch in the gut. His Lady was keeping her burden on her shoulders silently because she was sparing HIS feelings. And she didn’t trust him not to go moony eyed on her if she tried to lean on him. Which, honestly, she probably would have been right.

He swallowed hard.

“You should try talking to him, m- Ladybug,” he faltered. “I know if I were your partner, I’d feel terrible if you thought you couldn’t confide in me.”

He shifted his weight uncomfortably and stood up straighter against the wall, the movement catching her attention.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and gestured to the other chair next to her. “Did you want to sit?”

“I can’t, I promised my bodyguard I’d stay in his line of sight, it’s the only way he’d let me come down here,” Adrien responded, nodding his head towards the opening of the alley.

Ladybug’s eyes widened in surprise, and she leaned around the corner to see the Gorilla waiting for him. She gave a sheepish wave and turned back, tucking a bit further in and away from view.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t-… sorry.” She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. “Like you don’t have enough to do without babysitting me.”

“It’s not babysitting, and I didn’t know it was you when I came down here, I just wanted to see if I could help.”

She gave him a soft smile that made his heart stop.

“Well, mission accomplished then, I do actually feel a bit better.” She shifted so she could stand. “I should go, though, and I’m sure your bodyguard wants you back.”

Her hand reached for her yo-yo and Adrien instinctively reached out to stop her.

“Wait- Ladybug, just- Please do consider talking to Chat Noir, I’m sure he’d want to know. And-,” he hesitated. “And you can always come talk to me if you want. You don’t have to do this all by yourself.”

Her smile grew by a fraction.

“Thanks Adrien, that really means a lot.”

With that she launched herself to the rooftop and was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no spoilers in the comments please!

Adrien smiled as he heard the familiar tapping on his window. Smiling widely as he turned, he waved his Lady, his _friend_, into the room.

The 6 months that had passed since their conversation in the alley were ranking among the best he’d ever had. He’d been so relieved when she asked him, Chat Noir, to talk the very next day. It hadn’t been an easy conversation, of course. She’d cried a bit and he’d apologized more times than he could count, but they had come out of it stronger. She confided in him about the burden of her responsibilities. He opened up about his love of the freedom that came with the ring. It was a bit tricky keeping identities secret, but they were managing it and their partnership was now rooted in TRUST rather than just magic. It was an amazing difference.

He was even more thrilled, and flattered, a week later when she first showed up at his window. _Adrien’s _window.

_“I just wanted to thank you. For talking me through it all in that alley. And for your advice. I took it and I did talk to Chat, and it went so well, and he totally understands what I’m going through and isn’t reading more into it, and I know I should have had more faith in him, but really I was just so terrified of upsetting our partnership, and I shouldn’t have been, but…”_

_“Ladybug?”_

_She’d paused her monologue mid arm-flail, which Adrien found adorable._

_“I’m glad.”_

_She smiled. A big, actually-bright, delighted smile. It took his breath away._

_“Do… do you want to come in?” he’d asked. “Hang out for a bit?”_

_Her smile widened._

_“I’d like that.”_

So she’d become his friend on both sides of the mask. She showed up randomly and they watched movies or anime. He got comfortable enough around her to make a pun and she’d rolled her eyes and suggested he hang out with Chat. She seemed to know when he’d had a bad day and brought him chocolate chip cookies from the Tom and Sabine bakery. Her favorite, she’d said.

His too, he’d answered.

It also turned out that relaxing around Ladybug was good practice for relaxing around other people as well. Not to the same degree, of course, but when his father surprised everyone by letting him go to Nino’s DJ debut at a teenage club, he didn’t feel overwhelmed with trying to impress everyone. It was a club. The music had a good beat. He laughed with Nino over his equipment and pulled a few of the moves he’d perfected as Chat Noir, drawing a smile and a high five from his friend. He felt his phone vibrate with a notification, but ignored it while Nino showed him how he was wrapping the beat up.

As the music lulled between songs, he caught the sounds of an argument behind him.

“-lya, take it down NOW!”

“-not a big deal-… it’s CHARMING.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said the voice he now recognized as Marinette’s. “Take it DOWN until you ask him.”

“Ok fine,” he heard Alya concede as he turned towards them, pulling out his phone in the process to see what had pinged him. “But you watch, it’s adorable.”

He glanced at his screen as the girls were making their way through the crowd, and his heart dropped as he recognized that the notification was someone tagging him in an Instagram post. But when he tried to tap through, he got an error message.

“Hey Sunshine!” Alya accosted him even as he tried to refresh the site. “Look at this video and tell me it isn’t super cute.”

The phone thrust under his nose showed a shot of him from a few feet away, dancing to the music and looking WAY less suave than he had pictured himself. But it was pretty funny, and Adrien smiled as he said so.

“See?!” she turned triumphantly to Marinette.

“ASK HIM,” Marinette retorted emphatically.

Rolling her eyes, Alya turned back to him. “Can I post it on Instagram?”

Adrien’s heart dropped into his stomach again.

“No!” he practically shrieked, panic rising in his gut.

Alya’s face contorted in surprise.

“But why not? It’s fun and cute!”

“It… it’s not _sophisticated_. If my dad saw that on my public page, I’d never hear the end of it,” Adrien admitted, dropping his head ashamedly.

Alya showed signs of wanting to argue, but Marinette intervened.

“No problem, Adrien. She won’t post the video. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the evening, want to dance?”

Surprised at the boldness of his usually-reserved friend, Adrien gladly latched on to the opportunity and the three of them spent the rest of Nino’s set laughing on the dance floor.

Ladybug had stopped by the following evening, and instead of laughing like he’d expected when he’d told her the story, she’d narrowed her eyes at him.

“You need to talk to your friends about the situation with your social media.”

“Oh no, it’s not a big deal, Marinette keeps Alya-“

“Adrien.” She’d cut him off, and he’d looked at her expectantly. “You need to tell them the situation. They’re your friends. They might not understand now, but they will if you tell them. They wouldn’t want to make trouble for you.”

And so, one awkwardly brought up conversation, one apology from Alya, one hug from Marinette, and one bro-high-five-hug from Nino, and that had been the end of the worry about it from that quarter. Alya still teased him occasionally, threatening to take a photo of his hair askew and send it to his fans, but it was lighthearted. It made him feel more connected to her as a friend.

He also found himself falling completely in love with Ladybug. Her ease with him as Chat and her openness with him as Adrien brought out feelings he didn’t realize he could have. It stung a bit, to admit to himself that his previous state of “in love” had been little more than infatuation, but knowing what he did NOW… knowing her personality outside of the professionalism of battle, her sense of humor, her _vulnerabilities…_ now he felt like his heart swelled to twice it’s normal size whenever he saw her. As Chat and as Adrien. But he had promised her that he could keep his feelings in check and be the friend that she deserved, and he would.

So this evening, he smiled brightly as he welcomed his favorite person, asked her what movie she’d prefer, and let her hold the bowl of contraband popcorn, smuggled from the chef’s supposedly-secret stash.

Twenty minutes into the movie, and Adrien realized there was something wrong. She seemed more fidgety than normal, she kept taking deep breaths that weren’t appropriate for the scene on the screen, and she had barely touched the popcorn.

If Ladybug wasn’t eating popcorn something was definitely wrong, but his gentle question was rebuffed with a smile. He figured if she wanted to talk about it, she would, and let her be.

Soon enough…

“Adrien?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I… do you mind if… can I talk to you about something?” she stuttered hesitantly.

Concerned now at her nervousness, he paused the movie and turned towards her.

“You ok? What’s wrong?”

She’d turned sideways on the couch so her body was facing him, but she was looking off the side and shaking her hands as if to fling the nerves out through her fingers.

“Ok, ok, I have to tell you something, and it’s hard, so please don’t interrupt, ok?”

Dumbly, he nodded.

“Ok, so I have to apologize. -Shhh!” she cut him off when he began to respond. “I owe you an apology, and you have to hear me out. You remember the conversation we had in the alley the night you found me crying?”

He nodded, not willing to speak in case she didn’t want him to.

“You told me your… well you told me a bunch of things, but one of the things you said was that you hated dealing with fangirls who said they loved you when they didn’t know anything about you. I have to apologize, because I was one of those girls. -Shhh!” she cut him off again as an objection rose in his throat, making glancing eye contact as she frowned before looking away again.

“Yes, I was. I told myself that ***I*** was _better_ than them, that ***I*** _knew_ the real you, and _my_ affections were based on reality and not on some dumb celebrity crush. And I really believed it at the time.”

Now she did look back up at him, tears forming in the corners of her bright blue eyes.

“But now I know that I was wrong. In the last few months I’ve gotten to _actually_ know you, and I know now that I only knew half of you before, the _public_ half.” She smiled a bit as she continued. “I have to tell you, _private_ Adrien is 10 times as amazing, and that’s saying something.”

“Ladybug-“

“No please, I’m almost done, and I won’t get it out if I stop now.” She took another deep breath. “I had a crush on _public_ Adrien, but I’ve fallen totally in love with _private_ Adrien. And I’m sorry if I made things weird, but I just couldn’t keep coming over and pretending.”

She bit her lip nervously as she looked up again.

Adrien needed to say something, but his brain had dissociated from his body when she said she was _in love with him_. He stared at her, flabbergasted and non-functioning, the only motor control possible was the unconscious movement of his eyes as he shifted to stare at the lip she was chewing on in her nervousness.

After a few moments of silence, she pulled back.

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, I didn’t want to make it weird, maybe I should go.” She started unfolding herself from the couch, making to leave.

The idea of her leaving right now jolted him into functionality.

“W-wait!” he cried as he grabbed at her hand before she could stand. “God I’m sorry! I just… my mouth couldn’t keep up with my brain which couldn’t keep up with my heart and I just-“

He cut off his ramble and squeezed her hand.

“Ladybug, I love you too. I’m in the exact situation, I thought I loved you before, but it turns out you’re so much more than I even thought and…” he reached out with his other hand and grasped hers tighter. “I am so grateful you wanted to be my friend, and I can’t believe you… you just said you LOVE me!”

She giggled at that, and squeezed his hand in return.

“I do. And.. did you just say you love me?”

“Yes! I do!” He tugged her hands towards him, and scooted forward on the couch so their legs were touching. “Would you- I’m sorry, my brain is still not fully caught up. You’re here, and you love me, and I love you.”

She giggled again and nodded, her shining blue eyes locked onto his.

“Ladybug, can I kiss you?”

A bright smile bloomed over her face, and she nodded.

He reached up to cup her cheek, tilting his head as he gently brushed her lips with his, and then pressed forward, slotting their lips together and reveling in the pressure and softness of them. She tasted like vanilla.

He pulled back enough to smile at her, and she launched forward, wrapping herself around him in a fierce hug. He held her to him with equal fervor.

“We’ll have to be careful,” she muttered breathily by his ear. “No one can know about this, or you could be a target. But I don’t think I could keep myself from you now.”

He squeezed her tighter, his heart leaping into his throat at her admission of affection.

“Don’t worry, My Lady, we’ll be fine. I don’t think I could keep myself from you either.”

It was only when she stiffened in his arms and pulled back that he realized he’d said anything amiss. He hoped he could play it off, but when her blue eyes met his, wide with alarm and confusion, he knew he was done for.

“What did you just call me?”

“Uhh, My Lady, is that not allowed? I know that-“

“Only Chat Noir has ever called me ‘My Lady’.”

“HAHAHA,” he laughed, far too loud. “Oh sorry! That nickname must be off limits then! If it’s Chat’s nickname for you! I won’t call you that anymore!”

Ladybug’s expression flattened into incredulity.

“You have GOT to be kidding me!”

He winced, felt the guilt wash through him, and then promptly gave it up, deciding instead to settle into his happiness.

“Well, I guess the Chat’s out of the bag.”

“Stop.”

“Don’t have kittens about it, My Lady, we’ll be fine.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“You said you looooooove me!”

“I regret everything.”

He threw his head back and laughed, earning a rueful grin from the beautiful girl in his arms. Smiling like a fool, he pulled her in and kissed her again.

\--

_Bonus scene:_

"So do I get to know your identity now?”

“No.”

“Pleeeeaaase?”

“Nope.”

“But you know mine! We’re out of balance! The UNIVERSE is out of balance, My Lady!”

“Not my fault your brain can’t keep up with your mouth.”

“…ok point for that one, well played.”


End file.
